120 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



case do tliey breed noxious airs by tbeir decomposition. All their 

 life long they have conferred a positive benefit on the atmosphere^ and 

 at their death they at least do no injury. The amount of benefit de- 

 rived from each individual is indeed minute, but the aggregate is vast 

 when we take into account the many extensive surfaces of water dis- 

 persed over the world, which are thus kept pure and made subservient 

 to a healthy state of the atmosphere. It is not only vast, but it is 

 worthy of Him who has appointed to even the meanest of His creatures 

 something to do for the good of His creation. 



These general uses of the Alga3, apparent as they are on a slight 

 reflection, are apt to be overlooked by the utilitarian querist, who 

 will see no use in anything which does not directly minister to his 

 own wants, and who often judges of the use of a material by the dol- 

 lars and cents which it brings to his pocket. 



It would be in vain to adduce to him the indirect benefit derived to 

 the rest of creation through the lower animals which the Alga3 supply 

 with food ; for probably he would turn round with the further de- 

 mand, "What is the wse of feeding all these animals?" And he 

 might think, too, that the amount of oxygen in the air was quite 

 enough to last out at least his time, without such constant renovation 

 as the AlgjB afford, or that sufficient renovation would come from 

 other sources had the Alga3 never been created. "Show me," he 

 would say, "how I can make money of them, and then I will admit 

 the wses of these vegetables." This I shall therefore now endeavor 

 to do, by summing up a few of the uses to which Alga3 have been 

 applied by man. 



Man, in his least cultivated state, seeks from the vegetable king- 

 dom, in the first place, a supply for the cravings of hunger, and after- 

 wards medicine or articles of clothing. As food, several species of 

 Alg03 are used both by savage and civilized man, but more frequently 

 as condiments than as staple articles of consumption. Many kinds 

 commonly found on the shores of Europe are eaten by the peasantry. 

 The midrib oi Alaria esculenta, stripped of the membranous wings, is 

 eaten by the coast population of the north of Ireland and Scotland ; 

 but to less extent than the dried fronds of Wiodymenia palmafa, the 

 Dulse of the Scotch, and Dillish of the Irish, This latter species 

 varies considerably in texture and taste, according to the situation in 

 which it grows. When it grows parasitically on the stems of the 

 larger Laminarue it is much tougher and less sweet, and therefore 

 less esteemed than when it grows among mussels and Balani near 

 low-water mark. It is this latter variety which, under the name of 

 " shell dillisk," is most prized. In some places on the west of Ire- 

 land this plant forms the chief relish to his potatoes that the coast 

 peasant enjoys ; but its use is by no means confined to the extreme 

 poor. It is eaten occasionally, either from pleasure or from an ojiin- 

 ion of its wholesomeness, by individuals of all ranks, but, except 

 among the poor, the taste for it is chiefly confined to chiklren. It is 

 commonly exposed for sale at fruit stalls in the towns of Ireland, and 

 may be seen in similar places in the Irish quarters of New York. In 

 the Mediterranean it forms a common ingredient in soups ; but not- 

 withstanding M. Soyer's attempt in the famine years to teach this use 



